Public health officials in what we traditionally think of as prosperous regions report a malnutrition epidemic. Meanwhile, Canada’s biggest grocer reports increased profits. The supermarkets are push-ing food prices to a braking point.
Record – and rising – numbers of Canadians (and Americans, by association) are turning
to Food Banks to put basic food on the table. Nevertheless, public health officials
are reporting record malnutrition-related cases in food-growing regions!
We posted on this unexpected, and alarming, development just a week ago. Public health officials in 4 Southern Ontario administrative regions are jointly waning that malnutrition cases have soared in the past few months. The cause is simply that more and more people can’t afford to both keep a roof over their heads and afford decent food.
Supermarket profits up again
Nevertheless, Loblaw’s, Canada’s largest supermarket chain, has once again posted increased profits – for the umpteenth fiscal quarter in a row.
According to shareholder information released late last month, the grocer posted a profit of of $751 million for the 12-week period ended June 20, up from $714 million for the same three months last year.
The retailers claims that its aggressive expansion program in the discount food store sector was responsible for much of the increase. But record inflation in food prices must have something to do with it.
Crazy food price increases
Food price increases – especially in fresh produce – have driven the cost to consumers. That makes no sense to the average person – including me – when fresh fruits and veggies are in high season right now in Canada’s most populous and most productive regions.
Statistics Canada recently reported that food prices overall rose more than nine per cent in June, year-over-year. Food inflation has now outpaced overall inflation for 17 months in a row.
Here’s what really gets me: Tomato prices, specifically, rocketed more than 30 per cent last month, after surg-ing more than 45 per cent in May.
StatsCan attributed the May results to poor weather and less planted acreage in Mexico after the U.S. ap-plied hefty tariffs. But Canadian Tomatoes came into season in June. And ‘local’ tomatoes are still every-where in the stores, even now. So why have prices soared when they should be plunging, under the fundamental forces of supply and demand?
The system MUST be broken…
Oil prices still loom
The extreme fluctuations in the price of oil and petrofuels has also contributed to food prices increases over the first half of this year, StarsCan notes.
We saw record gasoline and diesel fuel prices this spring, edging on $2 per litre. That would have definitely have had an impact on food prices. Virtually all fresh produce gets to the stores by truck. Then prices dove as much as $0.50 per litre for a couple of weeks, when it looked as though a settlement was near in the Iran war. But peace talks evaporated, and prices shot back up.
One notable shift…
Shoppers are reported to be massively moving from the Produce department to the frozen food ai8sle for their daily fruit and veggie needs. As we’ve said often in this space, most frozen produce is just as tasty and nutritious as fresh. It’s harvested at its peak of ripeness, when it’s in season, and prices are lowest. It’s also immune from seasonal price fluctuations and other factors that plague fresh, perishable goods.
My take
It’s almost like a Godsend, that the federal Government has opened a sweeping inquiry into competition in all aspects of Canada’s food industry. From farm to table. It’s way too early to predict what it will find, and what remedies it will dictate. Or whether it will result in any relief on food prices at all.
One way or the other, public health officials are warning us that we’re into a crisis, verging on an epidemic, of illness and disease caused by average folks not being able to afford decent, nutritious food.
Whatever the competition inquiry discovers, it will be too late. We’ll have to ‘run to catch up’ with the crisis to avert outright starvation among our most needy neighbours. And let’s hope it’s all not too little, as well as too late!
~ Maggie J.